PROPANE QUESTIONS???

[wingnut]

I made a cart for my MFDDPS ( Masterforge Double Door Propane Smoker) that will alow me to move it around.  It also holds the propane tank.  Well I had a brainstorm, and almost got hit by lighting!!, after I got dried off I thought, "If I put an old bathroom scale on the cart,  I could than weigh the propane and figger how much I've used".  One problem, I don't have an empty 10lb tank.

So I figger that if I know how much an empty tank weighs, I should be able to calculate the use of the propane, per smoke, at an assigned temp. and guesstamate the number of smokes per tank!

10lb.TANK  =  (?) 25 lbs. PROPANE  (guesstamation)

(1) 3 HOUR SMOKE  =  4 lbs. PROPANE USED   (21 lbs. left)

(2) 5 HOUR SMOKE  =  7 lbs. PROPANE USED   (14 lbs. left)

AND SO ON...............................................

Does this sound like a reasonable facsimility of a good idea?????

Larry

PS  I am working on a getting a 30# tank, and getting some Q-VIEWS SOON.....

 

[chef willie]

never ceases to amaze me what some guys wanna know.....lol. No, seriously, I suppose it would be good to know how much you're using. However, myself, I'm more concerned with runnin' outta gas in the middle of a smoke so just need to know I have enough in the tank. Soooooo, I have an older tank with no gauge that I use as a backup. I looked at buying a gauge for it....20 bucks. At Costco I got a new tank with gauge for 25 bucks. Problem solved for me. Have you done the door mods on the MasterForge to stop the heat & smoke loss?

 

[mballi3011]

Now that sounds like a great idea. I guess beause I have so many tanks and I try to keep a couple full all the time. I have never tried anything like that.

 

[wingnut]

Did the door mods, and I capped the exhaust with an electrical junction box cover, using longer screws and stacking three nuts, on the 3 machine screws, for space and opening the knockout about 1/4 open.  It seems to work very well.  Also did the mod on the thermo, taking it apart and setting the needle back, and testing it in boiling water.  ONLY 40 degrees off, on the low side.  Also made up a mount for a digital probe, will Q-VIEW in a later post.

 

[sqwib]

I made a cart for my MFDDPS ( Masterforge Double Door Propane Smoker) that will alow me to move it around.  It also holds the propane tank.  Well I had a brainstorm, and almost got hit by lighting!!, after I got dried off I thought, "If I put an old bathroom scale on the cart,  I could than weigh the propane and figger how much I've used".  One problem, I don't have an empty 10lb tank.

So I figger that if I know how much an empty tank weighs, I should be able to calculate the use of the propane, per smoke, at an assigned temp. and guesstamate the number of smokes per tank!

10lb.TANK  =  (?) 25 lbs. PROPANE  (guesstamation)

(1) 3 HOUR SMOKE  =  4 lbs. PROPANE USED   (21 lbs. left)

(2) 5 HOUR SMOKE  =  7 lbs. PROPANE USED   (14 lbs. left)

AND SO ON...............................................

Does this sound like a reasonable facsimility of a good idea?????

Larry

PS  I am working on a getting a 30# tank, and getting some Q-VIEWS SOON.....

I was going to do this in my beer Meister, just never had the time.

Propane Weighs 4.24 pounds
30 pounder is 7.075 gallons
20 pounder is 4.716 gallons

Weight of 1 US Gallon of water = approx. 8.34LBS.

The "WC" stamped on the bottle followed by a number such as "47.6" means the bottle will hold 47.6 pounds of water. The tare weight (empty weight) indicated by a "TW" is also followed by a number such as "18" meaning the bottle weighs 18 pounds when empty. The numbers here would likely be found on a five gallon propane bottle (also known as a 20 pound cylinder) used for a barbeque grill.

Larry if you can figure out your BTU usage, you should be in the ballpark

1 lb has 21,548 Btu
1 gal has 91,502 Btu

For example I have a camp chef 3 burner rated at 30,000 btu's per burner, If I have all 3 on full i would consume nearly 390,000 btu's in 4.3 hours, that's an entire 20lb tank.

This is a ballpark, there are many other factors to consider.